Boasting six national championships and scores of Hall of Fame coaches and players, Carolina Basketball has come a long way from the first season--when the campus newspaper published a notice asking an unknown culprit to return the team's basketball. These pages are packed with little-known stories from the program's earliest days and new insights into its best-loved moments. All the greats are here, from Jack Cobb and the "Blind Bomber" George Glamack to Lennie Rosenbluth, Phil Ford, James Worthy, Michael Jordan, Antawn Jamison, and Tyler Hansbrough. Lucas reveals the meaning of the "Carolina family" and the origins and evolution of Tar Heel traditions that have made North Carolina one of the premier teams in men's college basketball.

These stories are brought to life with more than 175 color and black-and-white photos; a foreword by Hall of Fame coach Dean Smith and an afterword by fellow Hall of Famer Roy Williams; and an appendix of records and statistics. Some 25 sidebars feature first-person recollections from prominent players, including Rosenbluth, Ford, and Jordan; opposing coaches like Lefty Driesell; and famous alumni like Peter Gammons and Alexander Julian.

This is the must-have book for Tar Heel fans and college basketball lovers everywhere.

Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly and Tar Heels Today and a columnist on TarHeelBlue.com. He is author of five previous books on Carolina Basketball, including One Fantastic Ride: The Inside Story of Carolina Basketball's 2009 Championship Season.

Reviews

"Of the manifold books on University of North Carolina basketball that have emerged between the retirement of former head coach Dean Smith and the return home of current head coach Roy Williams, Carolina Basketball is easily the best, a wide-ranging, comprehensive history that takes its journalism seriously. The definitive book to date."--Charleston Post and Courier

"Carolina Basketball looks like a coffee table picture book but it’s more. . . . Could serve as an introduction to UNC hoops for area newcomers."--Community Sports News

"If you're the kind of person who organizes your schedule around Tar Heel basketball games, who may skip certain social events to the distress of those close to you--social events that might even include weddings, perhaps even those of your own children or, maybe if the game is a really big one, even your own wedding--then Adam Lucas's wide-ranging history is the perfect book for you."--Will Blythe, author of To Hate Like This Is to Be Happy Forever

"Adam Lucas has opened a Carolina blue treasure chest with writing that is as distinctive as Frank McGuire's New York accent, as vivid as the gashes on the faces of Eric Montross and Tyler Hansbrough, as memorable as a championship night on Franklin Street, and as precise as the concepts behind Dean Smith's four raised fingers."--Malcolm Moran, Knight Chair in Sports Journalism and Society, Penn State University